Saturday, October 29, 2016

[MLE] Book release: English and multilingual education

New book on multilingual education in India with a special focus on teaching English.

Dr Mahendra Mishra is a well known figure in the area of multilingual education in India. He was State Coordinator for Multilingual Education (1996-2010) in Odisha and spearheaded the mother tongue-based multilingual education in the primary schools in ten tribal languages there. So, when he (co-)writes a book, we better take notice!

MLE proponents usually have a love-hate relationship with English as the English is often suppressing the building of a good foundation in the mother tongue. It is therefore quite courageous to write a book on "Multilingual Education in India: The Case for English". The description makes you want to read more:

"Some perceive English language education as a hindrance to the growth of lndian languages and allege that it causes a social divide. The arguments of this book convincingly correct this uninformed notion and prove that English has been a tool of empowerment and a driver of social and economic mobility. The contributors demonstrate that local languages and cultures can be revived by integrating them into English language education."

If anybody wants to write a review, let me know so we can all benefit from that. Thanks, Mahendra, for writing on such an important topic!